Incumbents held on in all seven Town Board races, giving Republicans the majority for two more years.
"It's a testament to the majority," said Brookhaven Republican chair Jesse Garcia. "The voters said they are happy with what we've done. At the end, the voters validated the Republican majority and its work."
Democrats had hoped to steal a pair of seats in Eastern Brookhaven — Jane Bonner's 2nd District seat on the North Shore and Keith Romaine's 6th District seat on the South Shore — but came up short in both races, according to preliminary results released by the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Ms. Bonner defeated Democratic challenger John Leonard by 1,164 votes with 55 percent of the total vote, while Mr. Romaine fought off Democratic challenger Ron Lupski and Independent Joe May in a four-point win.
"Anything they could have thrown at us they did," Ms. Bonner said of the Democrats' effort in the two districts. "None of it stuck."
Said Mr. Leonard: "I'm disappointed, but I also know that our team ran as good a campaign as we could, so I have no regrets."
Voter turnout was down in both districts despite a strong push from Democrats hoping to turn out the vote. More than 4,800 fewer votes were cast in the two districts this year than there were in the 2007 general election.
"I think Democrats stayed home," said Brookhaven Democratic chair Marsha Laufer speaking to a Sun reporter at the Democrats' election night gala at the IBEW union hall in Hauppauge.
Incumbent Republicans Tim Mazzei and Kathy Walsh both won re-election bids for their Town board seats, as did Democrats Connie Kepert and Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld.
Since the start of councilmanic districts, only one incumbent council person has lost an election.
Town Supervisor Mark Lesko, highway superintendent John Rouse and town clerk-elect Patricia Eddington all won townwide races. Democrats have now won nine of the past 10 townwide Brookhaven elections, despite enrollment statistics that favor Republicans.
But Democrats have not had as much success in council district races, winning the majority just once since the inception of councilmanic districts. Republicans have led the town 94 of the past 100 years.
Mr. Lesko said he was disappointed in the results for Democrats across Long Island Tuesday, but happy to know his party did not lose any seats in his township.
"We at least held the line in Brookhaven and I'm happy for that," Mr. Lesko said. "But it's a tough night."
Mr. Lesko's opponent Martin Haley said the supervisor admitted in Mr. Haley's concession call that "there's a message out there for Democrats."
"He sees it coming," Mr. Haley said, speaking with Republican supporters at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Holtsville.
On the county side, local incumbent legislators Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham) and Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) won in landslides. Republicans gained two seats in the Suffolk County Legislature, with incumbent Democrat Brian Beedenbender losing his seat to Republican Thomas Muratore.
The GOP will now control seven seats on the 18-member Legislature.